 In the United States Brokerage account agreements under Article 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code create a legal relation known as "custodianship", which is distinguished from the traditional concept of a trust.For example, in the context of the Individual Retirement Account (IRA), a brokerage firm distinguishes its custodial account IRAs from trust IRAs when seeking IRS tax approval for an IRA plan which is part of a brokerage account agreement.The treatment of a brokerage account based IRA as a trust for tax purposes is largely a legal fiction.